BECOMING ‘EDUCATED’: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

Want to become ‘educated’? Here’s how.

How do we become ‘educated’, in the sense of being cultured or even enlightened? One thing is certain: It’s more than just amassing information. Being educated in a wider sense strengthens our moral compass and engenders stability, making us aware of what’s worth knowing and why. Here Jan Roß guides us through a seemingly inaccessible and self-contained world. 

There’s no reason to be awed by tradition, he argues, explaining that it can be boiled down to a deceptively simple truth: we are not alone in trying to control our lives and understand the world. This book shows us how to enter that community and feel at home there. It leads us to the Acropolis and Rome, introduces us to Kant, Shakespeare and Dostoyevsky as well as famous scientists like Darwin and revolutionaries like Rosa Luxemburg. Education means invoking a spell to unlock the human inheritance of poets, thinkers and artists, to let them speak to us and help us. 

This book is written for anyone who wants to learn that spell.